Penguins win 11th straight

Brandon Sutter scored the winner early in the
third period and the Pittsburgh Penguins ran their winning streak to 11 games
with a 4-2 win over the New York Islanders on Friday.

Pittsburgh matched the longest winning streak by a team this season as the
team tied Chicago’s 11-game run earlier in the shortened campaign.

The Penguins are the first team in NHL history to win at least 10 games in a
row for three consecutive seasons. The team went on an 11-game run from Feb.
21-March 17 of last season and won 12 in a row from Nov. 17-Dec. 11, 2010.

Pittsburgh now has a three-point lead over Montreal for the top spot in the
Eastern Conference, and trails Chicago by three points for first overall in
the NHL.

Pascal Dupuis had a goal and an assist, while Chris Kunitz and Joe Vitale also
scored for Pittsburgh, which got 33 saves from Tomas Vokoun.

Mark Streit and Josh Bailey scored for the Islanders, who have dropped three
straight. Evgeni Nabokov gave up three goals on 24 shots.

With the score tied in the third period, Sutter gave the Pens the advantage
just 1:46 in as Matt Cooke skated down the right wing and from down low he
dished a backhander across the net where an uncovered Sutter tapped it in.

New York was given a pair of power plays later in the frame, but was unable to
take advantage, and Dupuis’ empty-netter just before the final buzzer capped
the scoring.

The Islanders scored the only goal of the first period as Frans Nielsen won a
left circle faceoff back to Matt Carkner, who fed it over to the high slot
where Streit blasted it home.

Pittsburgh tied the game 8:11 into the second period as Craig Adams dished the
puck off from the left point to a skating Vitale, who snapped a wrister from
the left circle over the glove of Nabokov for his second goal of the year.

New York took the lead back with 2:42 to play in the middle stanza after the
Pens wasted a couple of chances to clear the puck and Bailey flung in a
rebound from in front.

The Penguins, though, tied the game with just 14 seconds left in the frame as
Kunitz’s wrister from the slot went between the pads of Nabokov for his 19th
goal of the season.

Game Notes

Kunitz trails Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos for the NHL’s goal lead by two …
Pittsburgh was still without center Evgeni Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang.
Malkin has been out since suffering an upper-body injury against Toronto on
March 9, while Letang missed his second straight game with a lower-body
injury. Also, forward Tyler Kennedy missed the game with an illness …
Pittsburgh won three of four from the Islanders this season … Both teams
were 0-for-2 on the power play.

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